Last week The Pirate Bay received a very prestigious award. The award has not been granted before to our knowledge so we’re extremely pleased about it.
We received the ‘Global Icon-status’ award, handed to us via the Swedish Ministry of Communication, but the originator where the award comes from is the organised global copylobby.

The award is signed by such famous people as John Kennedy (Chairman at IFPI.org), Alison Wenham (President of Worldwide Independent Network), Jonas Modig (President of Federation of European Publishers), Ana Maria Cabanellas (President of International Publishers Association), Kjell-Åke Hamrén (President of The International Confederation of Music Publishers), Helen Smith (Secretary General, Independent Music Companies Association) and Kim Magnusson (Chairman of European Film Companies Alliance).

As you can see they are all very mighty people and The Pirate Bay is truly happy about the award.

The motivation for the award seems to be the swift and decisive path TPB has taken since day one. To promote international cultural exchange, fight for freedom of communication and speech. They also seem very interested in the fact that the community has helped translate the site into 30 different languages, which TPB is really proud about as well. We promise that we will continue to translate the site to more languages to make it easier for everybody to use it!

There are sadly some misinformation in the award letter. They seem to think that TPB is actually illegal and are very concerned about this! But I can reassure you, the site is not illegal so there’s no reason to be alarmed.
It’s recognised worldwide as legal and helpful for the normal people around the globe that have something to share with each other. And we all do want to share!

Thank you very much for the award and hopefully we might be able to give an award back at the next Polar Pirate Prize award show in Stockholm! More information about PPP2008 will be revealed with in some weeks.

Other links about the award we received: Oscar Swartz